Most Kadima MKs attempted to leave the faction, lawmakers revealed in a Knesset
House Committee hearing – in which Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz’s request to force
out four MKs who attempted to break off from the party and join Likud was
rejected.

House Committee members voted to keep MKs Arieh Bibi, Avi Duan,
Yulia Shamolov Berkovich and Otniel Schneller in Kadima, with 11 in favor and
two opposed, rather than acquiesce to Mofaz’s request to leave them without
campaign funding and unable to join another faction or be appointed as ministers
or deputy ministers.

During the meeting, Schneller said 14 MKs – half of
the Kadima faction – took part in recent negotiations to split the
party.

When coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) was asked to reveal
which Kadima MKs discussed an exit strategy, he said: “You should ask who
didn’t.”

“Netanyahu must reveal the political bribes he offered,” a
Kadima spokesman said following the meeting. “The Likud turned the House
Committee into a circus in order to protect its mercenaries, which it bought
with promises of jobs.”

The spokesman called for the four Kadima MKs to
resign from the Knesset as soon as possible.

At the meeting’s opening,
Knesset Legal Adviser Eyal Yinon said that, according to the 1994 Knesset Law,
the four should not be forced to leave Kadima.

“The tension between an
MK’s individuality and his role as a messenger of his party are at the basis of
parliamentary action in Israel,” Yinon explained.

Yinon pointed out that,
on the one hand, factions have to present a unified front to keep order in the
Knesset. At the same time, MKs have the basic right to vote according to their
conscience and speak freely even if they disagree with their party’s leadership.
According to precedent, he said, if an MK would consistently vote against his or
her party in no-confidence votes it would be grounds for dismissal.

The
Kadima four cannot be seen as having left their faction, but if they continue to
act against their party, there may be more evidence against them, leading to
their dismissal, Yinon concluded.

Elkin defended the four MKs, mainly by
pointing to what he called Mofaz’s hypocrisy and the many occasions on which
other Kadima MKs had tried to leave the party.

“I was very interested to
see who would show their face here. None of Kadima’s MKs in the House Committee
are at this meeting. Why? Yoel Hasson and Shlomo Molla have been negotiating an
exit with Haim Ramon for the past month!” he said. “Most of Kadima is not here,
because they know I will reveal things about them.”

Even the MK
representing Mofaz in the meeting has a history of trying to leave the party,
Elkin added, This was confirmed by MK Meir Sheetrit, who spoke at the committee
on behalf of his party leader.

Elkin also referred to a letter Mofaz
wrote in 2005, saying he would never leave the Likud.

Days later, he
joined Kadima.

“How can this person accuse others?” Elkin
asked.

The four Kadima MKs defended their actions, focusing mostly on
their right to voice opposition to their party leader without facing
consequences and pointing out other Kadima MKs’ attempts to jump ship.

“I
did not commit any act that would mean I quit Kadima. In a civilized
state you cannot punish people for thoughts or intentions,” said Bibi, denying
he signed any agreement that would make him a deputy minister.

Duan,
formerly the director of Mofaz’s primary campaign, said that he had to convince
Mofaz dozens of times to stay in Kadima when Tzipi Livni led the party. He read
a newspaper headline from 2010, in which Mofaz threatened to leave Kadima,
saying “why wasn’t he called to the House Committee?” “I admit there was an
attempt to leave Kadima for ideological reasons, but the law allows for such
considerations,” the MK stated. “We have political opinions, and we can change
our minds. This is a democracy. What will Mofaz do next week if another seven or
eight want to leave?” MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) said: “It sounds like there is a
dictator in Kadima who wants to cut off objectors’ heads.”

Duan cited
“hurt feelings because of close connections” between him and Mofaz, saying he
will not criticize the Kadima leader, except to say that he is disappointed in
his lack of values and friendship.

Shamolov Berkovich repeatedly called
Mofaz a liar and lamented Kadima’s transformation into a “left-wing extremist
party that divides the nation.”

MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism)
said Livni made Kadima so left-wing that she was “punished by God” and ended her
political career “in shame.”

“Have MKs become marionettes? Are we unable
to criticize the leader of our party?” Shamolov Berkovich said, adding that the
party’s current political positions “hurt my heart.”

Schneller gave a
half-hour speech, saying he was a staunch supporter of the Kadima- Likud unity
coalition, and had high hopes for Mofaz’s success in managing to have a
replacement for the “Tal Law” passed.

“The gaps between Kadima and the
government are much smaller than the gaps between United Torah Judaism and Shas
and the government, or Yisrael Beytenu and the government.

For that
Kadima had to leave the coalition?” he asked. “It is legitimate to leave for
political reasons, but we could at least reach an agreement on this bill that is
so important to Israeli society.”

According to Schneller, Mofaz was
disrespectful of MKs whose opinions differed from his own, and Kadima has become
“an extreme left-wing party that hates haredim.”

“Mofaz is afraid because
he and I worked on breaking off from Kadima for months,” Schneller said. “He
told me after the previous party primary that we should build an alternative
after Livni stole the party from him, and I helped convince him to
stay.”

House Committee chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) concluded the meeting
by calling for Mofaz to show more respect for the Knesset and its members,
saying the Kadima leader’s request was “insubstantial, not properly explained
and pathetic.”

“There was no real attempt to prove the claims in the
letter, and then [Sheetrit] did not even stay to hear the defendants’ claims,”
Levin stated. “This is an embarrassment.”